Fokker E.V / D.VIII Parasol Mikro Mir 1/32

[BlrwestSiR]

Well, looks like there's a new option for the wing struts. 

https://aerocraftmodels.bigcartel.com/product/fokker-e-v-dviii-brass-wing-strut-set-for-the-mikromir-kit

There is a separate one for the gear. 

https://aerocraftmodels.bigcartel.com/product/fokker-e-v-dviii-brass-undercarriage-set-for-the-mikromir-kit

Carl

[DocRob]

10 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Well, looks like there's a new option for the wing struts.

Very interesting, how special interest kits get attention from people, who are willing to fix their shortcomings. This set will be handy for everyone with an interest into building one, especially the wing struts, with the already made up tripod. 
Great find Carl, thanks for mentioning.

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

I know with my very rusty soldering skills, these sets will come in very handy. I'll definitely have to get these when I have the chance. 

According to lore,it always takes someone to do the hard work for other modelers to get a mainstream/easier option. So thanks for doing the hard work and taking one for the team Rob! 

 

Carl

[DocRob]

24 minutes ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I know with my very rusty soldering skills, these sets will come in very handy. I'll definitely have to get these when I have the chance. 

According to lore,it always takes someone to do the hard work for other modelers to get a mainstream/easier option. So thanks for doing the hard work and taking one for the team Rob! 

My pleasure Carl , in surfing we call the one who is taking one for the team 'current dummy', which is the first guy out, paddling his lungs out and showing the others, where not to go .
Actually, even if I had known about these sets, I would have chosen manufacturing the struts by myself, because that was one of the things, I wanted to learn through this build. But there is the idea of doing a second one in a yellow black diamond scheme in the back of my head,...

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

With these sets out, the thought of grabbing a second kit has crossed my mind as well. And I haven't even started the first.  

Carl

[DocRob]

Every part in this kit has to be brought to form, grinded, bent or sanded more than once. There are not so many parts luckily, but it consumes a lot of time. I managed to close the fuselage and add the tail, so these parts are near ready to receive a gloss white cote for the decals.
The whity putty on the nose was accidently caused by me, while heating up the upper fuselage part, to bend it to shape. 

The tailplane was more than 1mm to thick, to get at least a half decent fit to the fuselage, so I sanded away a lot to let that happen.

I bought the 1/72 incarnation of the same plane from Armas Hobby and beside some flash, this kit looks way better engineered, with wing struts ready cast to the upper fuselage, as shown in the drawing and the wheel struts have a casted on jig, which will be removed after the glue dried readily. That's clever designing and you have to ask yourself, if somebody from Mikro Mir or Avis ever build the 1/32 kit.
The tiny Armas Fokker also has a complete Lozenge camo sheet from Cartograph. I may start the little one parallel in a Polish livery

Cheers Rob

[Jeff]

If every part needs to be 'massaged' , your skills in doing so, are superb, my friend, it looks perfect to my old eyes.... I think this is coming together masterfully...............

[DocRob]

Thanks Jeff, actually the steering column was very good, with only minor cleanup needed .

Before I start with painting and decaling, I want to get the hacking and slaying jobs done. I soldered the undercarriage struts and made a mock up test fit, testing if everything aligns correctly. Turned out ok and is very rigid.

Cheers Rob

 

[krow113]

Genuine modelling !

[GazzaS]

A rigid landing gear is great.  One thing I find disturbing about even WNW models is that the LG assembly is not very solid.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, krow113 said:

Genuine modelling !

 

15 hours ago, GazzaS said:

A rigid landing gear is great.  One thing I find disturbing about even WNW models is that the LG assembly is not very solid.

Thanks Gentlemen, I don't know why, but this build is fun and I think it is because the kit is not up to todays standards. It is challenging in a way, that you have to find solutions. Not like with a Tamygawa kit, where scratching is not a necessity, but a 'yeah I could if I would'.

The two WNW's I built were rigid enough, were the Pfalz undercarriage got significantly strengthened with the fishing line rigging. The other being the robust under construction for the Hansa Brandenburg, does not count.
The brass legs would carry a large scale B-29, it's very strong.

Cheers Rob

[Kaireckstadt]

19 hours ago, krow113 said:

Genuine modelling !

That’s modeling in the real meaning of the word! Much effort put into it but the result will pay off for that!

The U/C-braces are really nice. I only have a WNW Fokker D VII and a Meng Dr I Triplane in my stash and hope that these braces will be strong enough! 

[krow113]

Just a quick word on the WNW landing gear comment. My Biff and A Gotha both surprised me , especially A Gotha , the landing gear is far more robust than it looks. I was very impressed with the fit and engineering.

[DocRob]

Before painting and decaling started, I wanted to be sure, that the fuselage strut work was correctly measured  and aligned. I now soldered in the end rods, which fit into the fuselage holes. Everything seems to be in line and on the pictures the struts are not glued, but stay in place on their own.

Cheers Rob

 

[Kaireckstadt]

25 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Before painting and decaling started, I wanted to be sure, that the fuselage strut work was correctly measured  and aligned. I now soldered in the end rods, which fit into the fuselage holes. Everything seems to be in line and on the pictures the struts are not glued, but stay in place on their own.

Cheers Rob

 

Great work on the struts Rob!

Seems to be not an easy job but you managed it perfectly! 

[DocRob]

11 minutes ago, Kaireckstadt said:

Great work on the struts Rob!

Seems to be not an easy job but you managed it perfectly! 

Thanks Kai, I actually enjoy working with metal, especially with brass. It's a welcomed change from all that plastic stuff .
It's not that hard. You can use the kit parts for measurement and only the tripod connection on top needed a little adjustment.
Test fitting though, is not so easy, because I wanted to be absolutely sure, that everything fits, before soldering the rods into the tubes. There are a lot of loose parts to get aligned for a proper test fit, but this is done now, luckily.

Cheers Rob

[Kaireckstadt]

13 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Thanks Kai, I actually enjoy working with metal, especially with brass. It's a welcomed change from all that plastic stuff .
It's not that hard. You can use the kit parts for measurement and only the tripod connection on top needed a little adjustment.
Test fitting though, is not so easy, because I wanted to be absolutely sure, that everything fits, before soldering the rods into the tubes. There are a lot of loose parts to get aligned for a proper test fit, but this is done now, luckily.

Cheers Rob

Thanks for the explanation Rob! 

I have a question: How did you achieve the correct angle between the struts? 
Do you have a sort of slipway or how do you manage that ?

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Kaireckstadt said:

I have a question: How did you achieve the correct angle between the struts? 
Do you have a sort of slipway or how do you manage that ?

I assumed, that if I use the original kit parts for measurement, I will get pretty close with my construction. There is always a little wiggle room for adjustments. My backup plan was to use the jig, which came with the Pheon decals. It would have been perfect for the wheel struts and wing alignment, but it's some work to do, cutting the parts from cardboard to strengthen the provided adhesive paper. I decided to opt fot the jig, only if necessary.
I compared what I did with the front and side drawings and if it looks right´, I'm good and remember the slight wiggling room .

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

Your struts look great, and it's even better that they stay in place without cement.  Improving a model always feels good. 

Like you said, with WNW, there isn't much need to use your skills to make improvements-- you just have to avoid screwing things up.  My first WNW I did I felt a bit disappointed as I used an in box scheme...   I just felt like I was copying,  The two since then have used schemes that I researched or configured myself.

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Your struts look great, and it's even better that they stay in place without cement.  Improving a model always feels good. 

Like you said, with WNW, there isn't much need to use your skills to make improvements-- you just have to avoid screwing things up.  My first WNW I did I felt a bit disappointed as I used an in box scheme...   I just felt like I was copying,  The two since then have used schemes that I researched or configured myself.

Like using my own struts and other scratched parts on the Fokker build, enhancing a kit with an 'own' scheme is purely satisfying. 
With the very high standard, some kits have today, like WNW's and Tamiya's, sometimes the 'serious' modeler feels like consuming convenient food. There is no need to change anything to get a decent result, but where do I have my individual fingerprint among dozens of other builds?

To me this is not so important, as when I see a kit, which I'm interested in, I have very soon a picture in my mind, how I want to build it and how I wanted to paint and weather it. This process happens to be even before buying a kit. The quality of a kit is secondary to me, it's the subject itself, which has to attract me for different reasons, esthetically, historical interest, technical fascination or learning new techniques are my triggers here.
As I live relatively isolated, with nobody interested in modeling around me (except you guys out there ), I build only for myself and not for contests or even for displaying the built kits.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

First colour is sprayed on. Metal parts were primed, wings and fuselage not using my last bit of Tamiya rattlecan primer for the struts and PE-hatches and firewall.

The fuselage received a high gloss white Tamiya X-2 coat as did the wheel covers. The front part was then masked and airbrushed with Tamiya Olive green, which looked like a nice fit. 

The struts, engine hatch and firewall were also painted in olive green

The wheels were painted with an unhealthy mix of 80% hellbound flesh and 20% of undead flesh from Scale 75, which dry dead flat.

The wings were airbrushed in Tamiya's buff as a base for the four colour streaking. In front is the 1/72 wing from the Armas Hobby kit, which consists of more panels. I decided to let the who is right and who is wrong question behind me

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Rob, wow this is blindingly good, I hear what you say about a shake and bake and a true, as John says high cuss factor kit There is a fine line.......you’re knocking this one out of the park.........

[Jeff]

7 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Rob, wow this is blindingly good, I hear what you say about a shake and bake and a true, as John says high cuss factor kit There is a fine line.......you’re knocking this one out of the park.........

Right on Phil, perfectly said

[DocRob]

20 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Rob, wow this is blindingly good, I hear what you say about a shake and bake and a true, as John says high cuss factor kit There is a fine line.......you’re knocking this one out of the park.........

 

13 hours ago, Jeff said:

Right on Phil, perfectly said

Gracias Hombres, like you said Phil, there is a fine line... . The Fokker didn't cause a single curse until now, because mainly I was prepared for the kit. I had an idea of, how to tackle it and until now everything worked out. I don't mind an easy kit here and there, because that is not the main influencing factor to me. The kit of my AMK Mig-31 was very easy to build, because it was extremely well engineered. That didn't made the whole project simple, because I put some new and laborious techniques for painting and weathering on my shoulders, to get the look, I wanted.

Cheers Rob

[HubertB]

Fantastic !

Hubert